My Twisted Life
by Alexis Sam Potter
Summary: Alexis Hernoff was sitting in her room one summer day, and an old man approaches her door... Who is this Albus Dumbledore, and why has he come? Click and read this hopefully unique story about the twin of James Potter. Rated T just in case
1. Chapter 1

It was a Sunday afternoon on the last day of August, and just my parents and I were home. My brother was, as usual, out with one of his rude, obnoxious friends. Here, let me explain. My name is Alexis. Alexis Hernoff. I know, right? _Wonderful _last name. I'm eleven years old, and I have one little brother who's two years younger than me. His name is Max. He says it's short for Maximilian, but it's really Maxwell. I would know, because I was there when they named him. He just wants people to think he's worth a million bucks. My parents. Huh, I don't know if you could really call them that. They're nothing like me. My mom, Shirley Hernoff, is supermodel thin, has blond hair, and is always going on about rules. Rules, rules, rules, all the time! She acts as if they're the bible. I say rules were made to be broken! Then there's my dad, Mark Hernoff. He's really short, a stubby kind of man with sandy brown hair. He's really shy, and he hates talking to people. I, however, am a very exuberant girl who loves talking to strangers and being known in general. There you have it, that's my family! Now, back to me. Let's see… I'm pretty short for my age, skinny, and I have frizzy black hair, which I hate. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get it to be all sleek and shiny like those other girls in my class. I always keep it in a loose ponytail so no one can see how awful it looks. My eyes are hazel, that's another thing different from my family. They all have blue eyes! Sometimes, I feel as though I was adopted. None of my family looks like me! My mom always says it's just the recessive genes showing through. I don't know what else to believe, so I just take her at her word. Another thing, I can't seem to get along with most of my family most of the time. I mean, yeah, siblings are supposed to fight sometimes, but aren't they supposed to really love each other deep down or some crap like that? But my brother and I never get along. Not only that, he's so awful I sometimes don't believe I'm actually related to him! This nine year old is insane. I wish I had a twin. I've always wanted a twin, but instead I get stuck with this thing.

Anyhow, back to the story. So it was a Sunday afternoon towards the end of August, and my parents and I were home. We heard a knock on the door, and my mom told me to get it. It's most likely my brother, trying to be funny and act like a stranger. So I'm glaring when I open the door.

"Very funny Maxwell, now get inside." I grumble.

"I assure you, my name is not Maxwell, but I would be happy to come inside your home." An old man with a really, really, really long white beard says. I look up, surprised. Anyone else I know, upon being greeted this way by an elderly, would most likely apologize over and over again for their rudeness, and snivel and beg for forgiveness. I, however, am not anyone else I know, so I said

"Who're you?" He smiled knowingly.

"Ah, just like your charming brother I see." He said, quietly enough that I knew he thought I couldn't hear.

"I'm not at all like Max, thank you very much, and I hope to never be compared with the idiot!" I exclaim, not quite believing my ears.

"Oh, pardon me. My name is Albus Dumbledore. And it is not your brother Maxwell about whom I speak. Is your mother home?" He looked down his crooked nose at me.

"Yeah, she is, but I'm pretty sure you'll want to talk to me, not her. She and Dad aren't too pleasant around strangers." He frowned.

"Alright, we had best go for a walk then so as not to intrude. It is actually you I came to speak about, and I may as well say it directly to you. Shall we?" It was just then that I noticed his British accent. I smiled. I love accents!

"Sure. There's a nice park down the street from here that nobody ever seems to be in. I guess I'm the only one around here who appreciates nature. It should be pretty private, incase what you want to tell me isn't for everyone's ears."

"To right you are, I would definitely not want your neighbors hearing what I have to say. Let's go." A few minutes later we arrived at the park. It was completely empty, just like I said it would be. Albus Dumbledore turned to me, and surveyed me. "Miss Hernoff, I have some news for you, and I daresay it will be quite shocking. I don't know where to start."

"The beginning is always a good place." I pointed out cheekily. He chuckled.

"So like James," He murmured.

"Pardon me, Sir, but who's James?" I asked.

"Ah, thank you for giving me a place to begin. James Potter is your twin brother." I spluttered.

"_Twin brother?_ I don't have a twin. I've always wanted one, but I don't have one! And my last name is Hernoff, not Potter." He chuckled again.

"I was expecting you to react that way. No, Alexis. Your name is not Alexis Hernoff, but Alexis Potter. When you and your brother James were born, your parents and I decided it would be safest if you went to live somewhere else. Your real parents, Charles and Dorea Potter, are magical. Now, before you say that's not possible, watch this." And he pulled out a stick, and made the trees around us dance in circles! "Now do you believe me?" I nodded dumbly. "I thought so. Now, witches and wizards of your age in Britain, which is where you are from, begin a school called Hogwarts. I am headmaster at that school. The first day of first term is tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? How on earth am I going to get there with all my materials by tomorrow?"

"Do not worry. I have taken the liberty of purchasing all your things but your robes and wand. I will take you now to Diagon Alley to purchase those things, if you wish." I nodded slowly.

"But what are we going to tell my parents? The Hernoffs, I mean. Wait a second. Wouldn't they know I was adopted? They both claim to have been there when I was born!"

"Ah, yes. We obliviated them, which means wiped their memories, and replaced them with memories of you being born. Would you miss them terribly if I told you that you were never going to see them again after today?" I shook my head. "Good, I thought not. We are going to wipe all memories they have of you, and you will simply disappear from here. No one will ever remember you. And I assure you that you will be much happier with the Potters." I jumped up and down excitedly.

"I get to leave here forever! I get to leave here forever!" I repeated over and over again. After a little bit, we returned to my house. He had me gather all the things I would want to take with me, but I took nothing. I was planning on building a whole new life, with no reminders of this old one. Dumbledore, or should I say Professor Dumbledore, vanished everything from my bedroom and made it look like a guest room. With one last sweeping glance, he raised his wand.

"Obliviate!" He cried, and at once I knew we were two strangers once more. "Take my arm, we are going to apparate away. " When he saw my questioning look, he said "It is when one turns on the spot and instantly moves to whatever their destination may be. Sadly, one must be 17 to do that legally. But we are now going to apparate to Diagon Alley to buy your wand and robes." I took his arm and with a loud crack we were gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! Didja miss me? Sorry I've been gone... Busy moving. I posted on my other story too, go read that. And now, I bring in my struggling little brother to disclaim for me.**

***Brother* "No! let me go! Help! Police!"**

***Me* "No! Not until you disclaim my story for me! Say it! Now! or I'll... tickle you!"**

***Brother* "NOOOOOOOOOOO! Not the dreaded tick-"**

***Me* "titillandus!" **

***Brother* "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Haha! Ha! Lexi- Ha! -Doesn't - own-"**

***Me* "Thank you. You may go now." *grinning evilly as he runs out frantically***

I endured the feeling of having all my insides squeezed out of me for a few seconds, and then we appeared in a bustling alleyway.

"Ooh, ooh, can we get my wand first?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes we can. Right this way." He indicated a very old looking building with a sign that read 'Ollivanders, makers of fine wands since 382 BC.' We went in, and a man old enough to match the store came out of the shadows.

"Ah, Miss Potter. I had your brother in here just a few days ago. I was wondering when I would be getting you. Here, try this one." Abruptly he held out a long, thin wand that looked to be made of yew. I took it, but he grabbed it back a second later. "No, no, how about this?" I took another wand from him. Ten wands later, "Here. Maple and phoenix feather, nine inches." I took this wand from him, and all of a sudden my heart felt all warm. I looked up, and a rainbow shower of sparks was flying out of the tip. "Excellent, excellent! This is the one! That would be seven galleons, please." Professor Dumbledore stepped forwards.

"Here, her parents gave these to me for her." I looked at him.

"Galleons?"

"Wizarding money, Alexis my dear. There are galleons, sickles, and knuts. I'm sure your brother will be more than happy to explain them tomorrow." I shrugged my shoulders, and we exited the little shop. We went into another shop across the way, with a sign above it saying "Madam Malkins."

"Hello there Albus! How can I help you today?" A woman asked us from behind the counter.

"I'm just the escort for now. Ms. Potter here needs her Hogwarts robes." I looked around for a second, wondering who he was talking about, then I remembered. I'm Ms. Potter. It's so easy to forget my real last name! The lady had me step up on a stool, and she fitted me in these black robes. Fifteen minutes later we were done, and we exited. To tell you the truth, I was really glad that the shopping was over. I'm not one to enjoy shopping.

"Would you look at the time! We had best be heading to Hogwarts now, or else we will miss dinner!" Professor Dumbledore exclaimed. I jumped excitedly. Hogwarts! It sounds so magnificent, I can't wait! I took his arm again, and we apparated. This time, we appeared in another little village, but on the outskirts. By this time, I was literally vibrating with excitement. We walked up a path, and arrived in front of a tall set of gates. Dumbledore waved his wand, and they swung majestically open. We set off again, and came up to a pair of huge wooden doors. He reached out and pushed them open, and we stepped into the magnificent Entrance Hall. Together we walked in to a huge room on the left, which turned out to be sort of like a dining room, but he called it the Great Hall. Suddenly, a tall woman in emerald green robes was coming towards us.

"Albus!" She called. "Oh, who's this?" He smiled.

"This is Miss Alexis Potter." From the look of recognition on her face, I could tell she knew who I was. "But what is she doing here now? Term doesn't start until tomorrow." I smiled sweetly up at her, attempting to get her to like me, and forget that I wasn't yet supposed to be there.

"I thought it best that we get her here early, and she can be sorted tonight. That way, poor James won't have a heart attack tomorrow night upon hearing her name." She nodded briskly.

"Come along then, we had best get you sorted now." I was confused.

"Er, excuse me, but what do you mean 'sorted'?" A look of understanding crossed her face, and she sat down in front of me.

"Here at Hogwarts, there are four houses. Each house has its own… personality, one might say. A specific trait is associated with each one. They are Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Ravenclaws are wise, Gryffindors brave, Hufflepuffs loyal, and Slytherins cunning and ambitious. I am head of Gryffindor house. Right now, you are going to try on a hat that will tell you in which house you belong." "What house were my parents in?" I asked.

"We were in Gryffindor." A man's voice said from behind me. I turned, and a man and woman came running towards me. The woman looked just like me, down to the eye color.

"Oh, Alexis! We missed you so much!" She cried. When she saw my confused expression, she explained. "We're your parents, honey." And these ones did look like me. And act like me, as I soon found out. Yes, I had finally found my family. "We're here to see you sorted. We didn't bring James along, but we just couldn't wait. I waited eleven years to be able to hug you!" With that, she swept me up into a bone crushing hug.

"Pumpkin, you're going to squash her. Give her some room to breathe!" My dad said. I smiled gratefully at him, and then ran at him. I jumped on him and squeezed him to death. My real dad! "Honey, we haven't told James about you yet. We thought it best if you were introduced here, where you'll get to know each other." I nodded at that; it made sense.

"Excuse me, but I believe we should sort her now." Professor McGonagall put in. My parents nodded, and she led me to the front of the hall. I sat down on a stool, and she set the hat on my head. I jumped when it spoke.

_Ah, Alexis. The long lost daughter. _'That's my name, don't wear it out!' I thought back at it. _My, my, someone's a little insolent! _'Insolent and proud of it!' _Of course. Just like your father, you are. Spunky, outgoing, smart, Hm… Perhaps Ravenclaw. _'The smart people house? No thanks!' _all right then. Let me see… 'Hey, look at me,' _'Is that an insult?' _no, not at all! Merely observing how out and about you like to be. Oh, you've got quite a bit of nerve, as well, and quite a bit of courage as well. No doubt where you're headed! _"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the last bit so everyone in the room could hear. Professor McGonagall lifted the hat from my head, and I saw that she, Professor Dumbledore, and my parents were all beaming. Then several people who I hadn't noticed before burst into applause. I looked around. The applause died down, and Professor Dumbledore introduced the people.

"This is Professor Flitwick," he gestured to a tiny little man, "he teaches Charms, and is head of Ravenclaw. Professor McGonagall here teaches Transfiguration, Professor Slughorn" he indicated towards a large, jolly looking man with sandy blond hair, "is head of Slytherin and teaches Potions, Professor Sprout" he pointed towards a plump woman covered in dirt "teaches Herbology and is head of Hufflepuff, Professor Merrythought teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts, and there are many more classes and Professors that you will meet at a later time." All of them smiled warmly at me, and I grinned back. "So, shall we eat?" He waved his want, and a small table that seated all nine of us appeared in the middle of the room. Another wave and food appeared on it. We had a long, delicious meal, and then my parents needed to go. I gave them both hugs, and then Professor McGonagall showed me up to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I suggest you get straight to sleep, because tomorrow will be a big day for you." She told me. I did like she said, and got straight in bed, one of the most comfortable beds I had ever seen. There were five beds in the room, and I picked the one closest to the window. It also happened to be in a corner, which I really liked. I got into bed, and soon after was fast asleep.

The next morning I woke up rather early, around 8:00. I wandered back down to the Great Hall, and found a single place set for me. I sat down, and a plate full of scrambled eggs and toast appeared in front of me. I wolfed it down, and then decided to go exploring. I got lost multiple times, but I always managed to find my way back to either the common room or the Entrance Hall. It got to lunch time, and my stomach rumbled. I decided to look for the kitchen, so I wouldn't have to eat by myself in that huge hall again. I thought it would be on the lowest level, because the food seemed to rise up to the plates from below. So I went down there, and I was wandering around when a picture caught my eye. It was of a bowl of fruit. It seemed to be almost real; it was such a good painting. I walked over to it and traced the different pieces of fruit with my finger. When I got to the pear, it did something surprising. It giggled! Then it turned into a handle. Curiously, I twisted the handle. The painting swung forward to reveal the kitchens. I sighed, and then a second later, screamed. A bunch of tiny, shriveled looking _things_ were running around in there! At the sound of my voice, they all looked up.

"What are you?" I inquired fearfully.

"We is house elves, Miss!" one of them squeaked.

"And, what are house elves?" I asked slowly.

"We is elves, Miss. Elves that is bound to serve his or her master for the rest of their lives. We is lucky, because we is all working here at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore is very kind to us." The one in front explained earnestly.

"Thank you for explaining." I said kindly. "Now, what is your name? " I asked the one who had spoken, kneeling down.

"I is Coco." She squeaked. "Can Coco get you anything?" She looked up at me with her big, round, chocolate brown eyes.

"I was hoping I could find something for lunch down here." Immediately, half a dozen house elves came running with more food than even _**I**_could possibly eat, and that's saying something. Most girls my age are all on diets and watching their weight, but I couldn't care less. "Thanks!" I cried happily, and dug in. Half an hour later, I was stuffed to the brim. "That was so good!" I groaned. The elves all nodded and bowed to me as I made my way out the door, smiling and waving. "Thank you all!" I bowed, pretending to be a movie star greeting my fans, and then I giggled. I can be so crazy sometimes! Hmm, I wonder if James is like that?

I spent the rest of the day exploring and reading the textbooks. By the time students started arriving, I could get around the castle with my eyes closed, as well as do most of the first year spells. I was very proud of myself. I got from the library a copy of most of the text books from later years, and I went up and put them in my dorm. I was just walking back into the Great Hall when Professor McGonagall pulled me aside.

"You are to wait with your parents in the side chamber behind the staff table while the First Years are sorted. Then James' head of house"

"You mean you." I cut in, but she ignored me.

"Then James' head of house will escort him to you, and your parents will explain the whole thing to the both of you. Don't worry, you will not miss the feast. And you can watch the sorting from in here." With that, she walked off, I assumed to start the Sorting Ceremony. I headed into the back room to find my parents there as well as Professor Dumbledore.

"Sir!" I said, surprised. Then, "Mum! Dad!" I laughed at how easily I fell into the British way of speaking. Back in America it would have been Mom, not Mum.

"What's so funny?" Dad asked amusedly.

"Oh, nothing. I just think it's funny how fast I've adapted to British culture." They nodded in agreement. "Look! It's James!" Mum cried. I peered out the door to see a boy who looked like a male version of me sitting on the stool. Not a second later, the hat cried "GRYFFINDOR!" Mum, Dad, and I all celebrated silently. Not long afterwards, the sorting was over. Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment with everyone's names on it and handed it and the Sorting Hat off to Professor Flitwick. She marched over to James, who was sitting and laughing next to a boy with abnormally long black hair. We all laughed at his frightened face as he got up to followed her, but my expression promptly changed from one of laughter to one of fright when they approached the door. I gulped as Professor McGonagall pushed it open.

"Um, Professor? What am I doing here?" He asked uncertainly. Then, catching sight of Mum and Dad, "Mum? Dad?" he gasped. "what are you doing here?" Dumbledore looked at him.

"James, meet your twin." He said solemnly. It was then that he noticed me. He scanned me, head to toe, as I did the same to him. At the same time, we said "You look like me!" All the adults laughed at that. "That is because she is your twin sister." Dumbledore explained gently.

"Twin sister? I don't have a twin sister!" He spluttered.

"That's exactly what I said." I told him.

"Y-you mean it's- it's- it's true?" He looked at Mum, and she nodded.

"Yes James, you'll have to get over it. You have to share the spotlight with your extremely attractive sister." I said to general amusement. A grin split across his face, and the next thing I knew I'd been tackled to the ground in a giant bear hug. I grin even wider, and hug him back. This feeling courses through me, like I've never felt before. It's a feeling of huge excitement, fulfillment, and enough adrenaline to keep me going for a decade. I squeeze him tightly.

"I have a sister." He whispered. "I've always wanted a sister!" He cried.

"And I've always wanted a twin! Back at my old family I had a brat of a 'younger brother' who" then I broke off. It had just occurred to me, why _had_ I been taken away from my brother? Just then James voiced my question.

"Why did you take her away?" He asked hoarsely.

"Yeah, why did I have to go across the world to live with some random Muggle anyway?" I interjected. "You see," Dad started.

"There was once a man named Tom Riddle. He is now known to the world as Lord Voldemort." Dumbledore interrupted him, but I could tell it was really his story to tell. What I didn't know was why Mum, Dad, and James all gasped and shivered at the mention of this Lord Voldy-thing's name.

"Who's Lord Voldy-thing?" I asked, and my family gasped again.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself!" Dumbledore told them. Then he continued his story. "He is a dark wizard. Not long after he graduated from this very school, he went very bad and started killing people, just for the fun of it. Then, one day, he came to me. He asked me if he could have the job of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. I told him that I could not have him around my students, and he got very angry. Not long after, I gave the job to your father. Voldemort was angry that I had turned him down, but he was even angrier at your father for getting the post. He cursed the job, so no one could hold the post for more than a year. In your father's case, it was because your mother became pregnant with you. When you were born, Lord Voldemort was out to get your parents still for the little job misunderstanding. He had heard that they had a child, but only knew about James. We decided that, to keep Alexis safe, she should be sent away. We agreed that we would go get her when it was time for her to go to school. So we sent her off to live with Muggles in America." Dumbledore finished.

"But still, how could you do that to her, to us?" James burst out. I agreed with him. I had been deprived of my twin for eleven years because they were afraid some Dark Lord was going to find out about me? I was furious. And by the looks of it, so was James. "Come on, Alexis. Let's go. I want you to meet a boy I met on the train." He grabbed my elbow and we strode out, arm in arm, without a backward glance. When we got to the Gryffindor table, he turned to me. "You _are _in Gryffindor, right?" He asked uncertainly. I punched him in the shoulder.

"Yes of course I am! I'm your sister! I'm a Potter, you dimwit." We laughed at that. We had only known we were related for half an hour, and already we were comfortable enough to tease each other!

"OI! SIRIUS!" He called along the table. The boy he had been sitting with before stood up.

"YEAH JAMES?" he shouted, even though he was right there.

"OH THERE YOU ARE! CAN I COME SIT BY YOU?"

"YEAH!" we walked over to him. "This is Remus; he's a first year Gryffindor too." I looked over to see a pale, skinny boy with sandy brown hair, kind of like my dad- no, Mr. Hernoff's. He looked a little bit unwell, but I didn't ask.

"Hi Remus! I'm James Potter." James said brightly.

"Pleasure." Remus said, holding out his hand. James took it, and shook it solemnly before cracking up. "This is so formal it's funny!" He laughed. "Oh, Sirius, you'll never guess what just happened." Sirius looked up questioningly.

"Here James, let me." I said. "Hi, I'm Alexis Potter, first year Gryffindor." Sirius choked on his drink when I said my last name.

"What? How? James, you told me you were an only child! How could you forget you had a twin sister?" "And how come you weren't called during the sorting ceremony?" Remus added intelligently.

"Well I didn't know I had a sister until about half an hour ago!" James exclaimed.

"You see, our parents had the bright idea to separate us at birth, so they sent me off to America to live with some Muggles. Professor Dumbledore brought me back in time for my first year at Hogwarts, just yesterday. They Sorted me yesterday, because they didn't want to cause a commotion if James were to hear my name. Oh yeah, we're twins." I finished with a little bow, and they snickered. "Hey James, when's our birthday?" I asked embarrassedly. James spit out his juice.

"You don't know your own birthday?" Sirius sniggered.

"Well, I was told that it was May 14th, and that's when I've been celebrating it for the last eleven years, but I can bet that isn't the real date." The three of them nodded in understanding.

"That makes sense, and you're right. It's March 27th." James told me.

"Cool!" I cried. "Now I'm gonna eat. I don't know about you boys, but I'm starved." I announced and, much to their amusement, commenced eating everything within reach of me. James chuckled and joined me.

"Not like the other girls, are you Alexis dear?" Sirius sing-songed.

"Just Alex, please. Alexis sounds so- so- so- so girly. And you can say that again! It's so annoying how they all just sit there, picking at their food all daintily. I mean, we're eleven! Why on earth are they worrying about their weight?!" I asked, so passionate that it made them burst out laughing.

"Alright then, Alex it is." Remus said, chuckling. We all finished eating a little earlier than everyone else, most likely due to our speed.

"Hey, I know the way to the common room. Want to ditch the rest of dinner?" I asked them. Sirius and James grinned and nodded emphatically. Remus looked a little hesitant, so I grabbed his arm and marched out of the hall. In all the commotion of the first day back, no one noticed as the four of us slipped out.

"Hey! Let go of me! This is probably breaking the rules, and I don't want to be a- a- a marauder!" Remus protested.

"Hey, marauder… I like the sound of that!" Sirius said.

"Say, why don't we use it as a sort of nickname? I can already call Sirius my best mate, and I can tell I like Remus. Alex is my sister and I love her to death already, not just as a sister but as a friend. I think we make a decent group." James commented.

"Yeah, and we'll use Marauders as a nickname, so if we ever get into mischief, or decide to prank someone for some reason," James' eyes glinted at that, "we can sign off as the Marauders so no one knows it's us!" I finished triumphantly. "Well, here we are!" I said a minute later, indicating the Fat Lady. "Password?" She asked me.

"Flibbertigibbet" I replied, and she swung forward. In answer to the questioning looks I got from all three boys, I said "Professor McGonagall gave it to me yesterday so I could get in to sleep." They nodded, and looked around.

"Let's go sit by the fire!" James suggested, and I laughed.

"Sure, there're four squashy chairs over there, just enough for all of us." We raced over there, and they all plopped down. I was about to sit down as well when James grabbed my hand.

"No, Alex, would you sit with me? I mean, these chairs are huge and I want to get to know you. You're my sister, and I barely know you! We shouldn't be sitting apart. It makes me feel like a stranger." I grinned at him.

"Thought you'd never ask!" I cried, and sank down next to him. "So, brother, how has your life been this past decade?" I asked. We all chuckled at this, and James put his arm around me, rumpling my hair affectionately.

"It has been very lonely, actually. What with me not having my twin sister to share it with!" I looked him in the eye very seriously, and then tackled him in a bear hug to match his own.

"I love you, James Potter!" I cried.

"Wow, in any other situation that would have been really awkward." Sirius commented.

"Oh, shut up Sirius! You don't have to ruin it!" I scolded him, before turning to James. "Now, I want all the details, from the most boring and obvious like where we live to the finer details such as your hobbies!" He smiled, and then frowned.

"I forgot. You really don't know anything about our life! So, for starters, we live in a mansion." I gasped. I never thought I'd be rich! "Yeah, I know. It's in an all Wizarding village called Godric's Hollow. We have two house elves. You know what those are, right?" He asked uncertainly.

"Yep! I just met the ones in the kitchen." I replied. Sirius froze. "Wait. You know where the kitchen is?" He asked incredulously, and I nodded.

"I know, right? I know my way around the entire school with my eyes closed. I was exploring all day today. Anyway, back to you James." They all stared at me wide-eyed, even Remus. It appears he isn't all goody-goody and rule bound like dear old Mrs. Hernoff, and he actually has some life in him!

"So our house elves are named Krinky and Po. Po is a girl, Krinky's a boy. So there's an extra room in my wing, and my-_our_ parents said it was for someone special so I couldn't have it. I bet it's yours! And now, on to hobbies like you said. My all-time favorite thing in the world is Quidditch!" Sirius and Remus clapped excitedly, but I was confused.

"What's Quidditch?" I asked. They all turned to look at me, horrified.

"You don't know what Quidditch is!" James squeaked. I shook my head slowly. "Just wait. It's the best thing to ever happen to wizard kind! It's a game, and it's played in the air on brooms."

"Wait." I interjected. "There are actually brooms that can fly?" James nodded. "SWEET!" I shouted. They laughed at my immense enthusiasm.

"Back to Quidditch. So there are seven players on a team, and three types of balls. It's played on a pitch with three hoops on each end. The first ball is the quaffle. That's the scoring ball, and it's about twenty five centimeters across and red. There are three chasers, and they score the ball by throwing it through the hoops. There's one keeper who defends the hoops. The second ball, well actually there's two of them, is the bludgers. They're enchanted to fly around and try to hit people. There're two beaters whose job it is to bat the bludgers away from their teammates, and towards their opponents. The third and final ball is the golden snitch. It's about the size of a walnut, and it has wings. It's wicked fast, too. The last player is the seeker. It's his or her job to catch the snitch, and when they do, the game is over. Oh, and catching the snitch earns the team 150 points, so that almost guarantees a win." James finished. "Wow. THAT GAME SOUNDS BLOODY BRILLIANT!" I shouted. "I don't blame you for loving it! So do they play it at school?" James nodded.

"Yep! There are house teams. While you were in with Mum and Dad, Dumbledore announced that tryouts for the team are in two weeks. I think I'll try out for chaser. I'm usually fairly good at it when we play games in the neighborhood." Sirius nodded.

"Same here, but I'll go out for beater." I looked at Remus expectantly. He grinned at me.

"Keeper!" I thought about it for a second.

"You know, I think I'll try out as well. I bet I could make a good seeker!" James nodded.

"Yeah, you've got the build for it, light and speedy. I'm pretty good at seeker as well, but I prefer chaser." A thought occurred to me.

"I have absolutely no idea how to fly!" I exclaimed sadly.

"Hey, no worries. Dad said they teach us how here. I bet you'll be brilliant; a natural." James said softly, looking at me with caring eyes. Man, I really love this kid.

"Look, it says we have our first lesson is October 21st with the Ravenclaws!" Remus said, pointing to the bulletin board.

"Hey, I was almost put in Ravenclaw!" I said, remembering suddenly. Then I giggled. "But I told the hat that it had better put me in Gryffindor where the rest of my family was, or else, and it backed down. It was pretty funny, actually." Remus stared at me.

"Hey, so was I! But instead of wanting to go with my family, I just said I didn't want to be in the know it all house. The hat was so shocked! But then it was all 'well if you're going to give me impertinence, to Gryffindor you go!'" We all laughed at that.

"Know it all house? Didn't think you had it in you, Remus!" Sirius barked out. Remus just smirked at us. All of a sudden, the portrait hole burst open and the rest of the house tumbled in.

"We'd better go up to the dorms, quick." I told the boys. They nodded. "See you in the morning then!" I hugged James and set off for my dorm. When I got into the empty room, I sank down onto my bed. This was a very intense night! I sat there alone for a few minutes, and then the door burst open.

"I wonder where all the Gryffindor boys were?" A redheaded girl asked the girl standing next to her. "They were with me." I said, smirking when they looked up, shocked.

"Oh! Hi! I didn't see you there! I'm Lily Evans." The redhead said.

"And I'm Mary MacDonald." The girl next to her said. She had light brown hair and blue eyes, and was fairly tall for our age.

"Alex Potter." I said, holding out my hand. Lily took it.

"Wait. Are you related to James Potter?" I nodded.

"Yeah, he's my twin brother." Merlin, that sounded weird coming out of my mouth.

"Oh. He's a bit of a jerk." She said, looking at the floor.

"Really? I didn't get that impression of him." I told her.

"What do you mean, 'that impression'? You make it sound as though you just met him!" Mary said.

"I did." I said darkly.

"I'm sorry?" Lily asked, confused.

"I said I just met him. Our darling parents sent me away to live with Muggles when we were born. So all my life I have been living in America, with an obnoxious excuse for a family." I stared at the door, not wanting to make eye contact for some reason.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Lily squealed.

"Don't be. What's in the past is past, and I have him now. I really couldn't be happier. I've only known him for about two hours, and already he's the best brother and friend any girl could wish for." I said, getting a wistful look in my eye.

"Really? He seemed like an arrogant, big headed idiot when I met him on the train! I had barely introduced myself and he was like 'go out with me' as if he was fulfilling my hopes and dreams just by acknowledging me. And he insulted my best friend to his face!" Lily exclaimed.

"What did he say?" I asked curiously. This was a whole new James to me, but I supposed that was just how he presented himself with people he didn't know. He probably just wanted to seem confident, I told myself reasonably.

"Well Sev and I were sitting in a compartment, and he and that Black boy came in. They were discussing which house they wanted to be in, and Sev was like 'I hope you're in Slytherin' to me, because his whole family was and now he is. Then James was like 'Slytherin? Who'd want to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?' And then Black told him his whole family was in Slytherin, but instead of apologizing and admitting that not all Slytherins are bad, he said 'And I thought you were decent!' Then James said he was going to be in Gryffindor, and Sev said that was alright if you'd rather be brawny than brainy. And James, the nerve of him, asked Sev where he was going to go seeing as he was neither!" When she finished her little rant, I was aghast.

"Hang on, I'll be right back." I ran down the steps to the common room, and then barreled up the boys' staircase. I stopped in front of the first room, and knocked.

"Who is it?" came Sirius' muffled voice through the door.

"It's Alex. Can I come in?" The door flew open, and I walked in. James was putting up posters of Quidditch teams, Sirius was sitting on his bed, and Remus was unpacking. "I need to talk to you." I told James.

"So talk?" He said confusedly.

"Alright then. So I just met the other two girls in my dorm. One of them, redhead, by the name of Lily Evans?" his eyes lit up at the mention of her name. Uh-oh, that never means anything good. "She said she met you on the train. She told me that you asked her out as soon as she introduced herself. And she also said you insulted her best friend." He looked confused again. "The Slytherin?" I said exasperatedly. "Why on earth did you say those things?" He, Sirius, and Remus stared at me like I was crazy.

"You see, Alex dear, Gryffindor and Slytherin have a long history of rivalry. It's pretty much law that they hate each other." Sirius explained.

"That and the fact that I was raised to hate Slytherins…" James pointed out. "Oh, and our family have a really bad history with that boy's. He's a Snape, and the Snapes and Potters hate each other." I nodded in understanding.

"That still doesn't explain why you acted like a cocky git to her. Why the hell did you ask her out?" He flushed at that, and Sirius grinned.

"Well, I guess you could say I have a wee bit of a crush-"James started.

"No, that's an understatement. As soon as she left the room, your brother here declared that one day he would marry the darling Lily Evans!" Sirius told me, grinning.

"Love can make one do loopy things!" Remus said sagely. We all nodded in agreement.

"Now we face a new dilemma. How on earth am I going to make Lily see your real self without giving away your crush?" I questioned. James paled at that.

"Whatever you do, don't tell her. I'd rather she think I'm an obnoxious prat!" He cried.

"Okay then. I think I've got a plan. I'll just tell her about the house rivalry thing, and skip completely over the whole asking out thing. And I'll talk you up as much as I can, all the time." James smiled gratefully at me. I got up from where I had been sitting on the spare bed and walked over to hug my brother. "Well, I'd best be getting back, before your darling Lily comes up here looking for me." I winked at him and left. I opened the door to the first year girls' dorm. "I've talked to him!" I announced.

"What did he say?" Mary asked me.

"So, did either of your parents come here?" They both shook their heads.

"Muggleborn." They said simultaneously.

"Okay, thought so. So apparently Slytherin and Gryffindor are legendary rivals." Lily nodded in understanding. "Also, apparently the Snapes and the Potters are enemies, so he was obliged to hate your friend on sight. And our Gryffindor parents certainly made sure that he knows to hate Slytherins. It was all about how he was raised. He really didn't know any better. I put him straight though, so he shouldn't bother your friend again. He's really a sweet boy, and surprisingly caring for an eleven year old male." I finished up. Lily looked at Mary, and then said

"Okay, we'll give him another try."

"Thank you!" I cried. "You have no idea how much it will mean to me if you guys get along with him." Mary looked at me.

"So," She asked. "Just how many boys are we talking about?" I grinned.

"Just three other Gryffindor first years, besides us I mean. But Sirius, Merlin he's a handful. Probably enough to be counted as two boys! Then there's Remus. He's really quiet, and at first sight you would think he's really boring. But after talking to him, you'll see that he's actually really funny, and rather smart. The Sorting Hat wanted to put him in Ravenclaw, but he told it he didn't want to be in the know it all house!" They broke out laughing at that. And then there's my brother! You know about him already." They both nodded, still grinning.

"How do you know them so well? I mean, you just met tonight?" Mary said questioningly.

"Well, when I met James, he and Sirius were already a package deal. They're so close it's almost like they're brothers! And really, after getting to know him for an hour, he feels like a second brother to me as well." I explained. Suddenly, Lily yawned.

"We'd best be getting to bed soon. Classes start tomorrow after all!" She said. I agreed, and we all got into bed. As I drifted to sleep, I wondered what school would be like.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello faithful readers (I don't know, do I have any?)! Sorry it took so long to update... I was suddenly attacked by a pile of homework about a month or two ago, and have only just unburied myself. Is unburied a word? The computer doesn't think so, but my friend does. Hey, I know, I'll use her for a disclaimer today.**

**Lexi: Hey, Adelis! Come here and disclaim for me!**

**Adelis: Wait, what's a disclaimer? Should I be taking all the blame for your mistakes?**

**Lexi: N- yes! yes you should!**

**Adelis: Somehow I don't believe you.**

**Lexi: fine. Just tell the nice readers that I don't own any of this.**

**Adelis: But what if I don't want to?**

**Lexi: Well I don't care.**

**Adelis: No fair!**

**Lexi: Well, it may have escaped your notice, but _life isn't fair_.**

**Adelis: Hey, that's a direct quote from the movie! That doesn't belong to you!**

**Lexi: Ha! You're doing it already! Now say that none of the other stuff belongs to me.**

**Adelis: Fine. Lexi doesn't own anything except her OCs.**

**Lexi: Thank you. Now enjoy my story.**

* * *

I woke up in the morning to the sound of a high pitched wailing coming from outside of our door. I shot up like a bolt, and dashed out into the hall, just in time to see the stairs turn into a slide and send none other than my very own Sirius Black shooting down.

"Sirius!" I laughed. "What on earth were you doing trying to get up here?" He went flying off the end of the makeshift slide, and fell sprawling on his face. He bounced straight back up again, and giggled in a very un-manly fashion.

"That was so FUN!" He shouted.

"Er, Sirius? I don't think most of the house is awake yet. After all, we don't need to be at breakfast until eight. Now would you care to tell me why you were trying to get up there in the first place?" By then I had slid down as well, so I could talk to him face to face. "What time is it, anyway?" I asked as an afterthought.

"I believe it is 5:30." He said unconcernedly.

"Yeah, you're lucky the rest of the house isn't down here killing you right now! I guess they're all heavy sleepers. Anyway, back to the subject. What is it you were trying to do up in the girls' dormitories?" He shifted uncomfortably.

"Erm, I was trying to wake you up, actually. But I had thought I would go into your room to do it, not slide down the steps. Apparently the steps to the girls' dormitories don't like boys." I laughed.

"Of course they don't like us Sirius! We're too immature!" Remus' voice floated down from the boys' staircase. Just then he and James appeared.

"It appears as though we are the only ones awake at this moment. Shall we make the best of it?" James asked us, eyes glinting. I nodded enthusiastically, as did the other two, but then I noticed our clothes. "We're all in our pajamas. And I think my dorm mates would wake up if I went back up there." Remus looked at me as if I were insane.

"Do not worry, fair maiden. I know a spell that will transfigure your pajamas into your uniform." I giggled.

"Fair maiden? Who are you talking to? I didn't think Mary and Lily were down here yet!" He groaned. "Oh get over it! I was trying to be dramatic!" I rolled my eyes.

"So Remus, will you hurry up and transfigure our clothes so we can get out of here?" Sirius asked impatiently.

"Yes sir!" Remus insolently snapped a salute.

"Wow, Remus. This is a whole new side of you that I didn't meet last night!" I told him. He grinned cheekily at me.

"It's my Gryffindor side." He said unconcernedly, tapping each of our pajamas in turn, transfiguring them into robes.

"Oh, James? Lily has agreed to give you a second chance, as has her friend Mary." I informed him. He sighed with relief and came over to hug me.

"Alex, I'm so glad you are my sister. You're a miracle worker!" With that we marched out of the common room.

"Isn't it a little early?" The Fat Lady called after us, but we just laughed back at her.

"So, shall I give you gentlemen a tour? We have two and a half hours. That should be enough for you to get to know your way around." Sirius looked around teasingly.

"Gentlemen? I don't see any gentlemen."

"Au contraire, Sirius. I believe we three are perfect gentlemen, therefore she was speaking to us!" Remus said in a fake lofty voice.

"That sounds like a great idea, Alex! That way we won't get lost on our way to classes." James said to me, completely ignoring our two best friends.

"I wouldn't let you get lost anyway, and we have all our classes together, because we're in the same year and house." I told him, doing the same.

"Oi! Twinsies! Forgetting about someone?" Sirius joked as we turned away to begin the tour. I smiled at him sweetly.

"Of course we aren't going off on a tour of the castle without our two new best mates. Why on earth would you think that?" He frowned, clearly trying to tell whether I was joking or not.

"Come on you three!" Remus shouted. "We should get going before the rest of the school wakes up!" I jumped at his raised voice, but agreed wholeheartedly with him.

"Remus is right. Let's just go."

"I'm always right!" Remus added impertinently.

"Yes, of course you are." I said sarcastically.

"I'll prove it to you when I get all the questions teachers ask me right today." Sirius looked at him incredulously.

"We're the Marauders. We'll all get everything right and be the best in everything!" He cried. We all laughed at that.

"Well, I _was_ the valedictorian of my fifth grade class." I said. They all looked at me strangely. "Valedictorian?" James asked.

"Fifth Grade?" Remus added.

"Oh, of course! You all grew up as British wizards, while I grew up as an American Muggle! Valedictorian is the term Muggles use for the person with the highest grades in the entire class. And in America, schools go by a grade system. When you're seven you're in First Grade, eight in Second, nine in Third and so on. Generally, there aren't valedictorians until high school, which starts in Ninth Grade. But my school started them early. And I was the smartest one in my class!" They all looked amazed at the idea of such a system of learning.

"Wow. In the Wizarding World most kids are taught the basics like reading and writing at home, but they don't go to school until Hogwarts!" Remus informed me.

"Well what I was trying to say," I pressed on, "is that we four are certainly going to have no trouble in our classes. Because if James is the same as me, he is pretty smart as well." James nodded.

"And I'm smart too!" Sirius added in.

"I believe you. Now, let's get going." We set off around the castle. I took them in a tour, from the very top to the basement. "Now, I have a little something special to show you. Do you all remember a certain room I said I knew how to access last night?" I asked them as we got to the lowest level.

"The kitchens!" Sirius cried. I laughed.

"Yes Sirius, very good. I'm about to show you the kitchens." He looked around, confused.

"I don't see any doors though!"

"Did it ever occur to you that it might not be behind a door?" I sighed, and reached out to stroke the pear. It giggled and the door swung open once more. "Coco?" I called, and she appeared in front of me. I really liked that elf.

"Yes Miss? What can Coco do for Miss today?"

"Please Coco, just call me Alex. And I wanted to introduce you to my twin brother James and our two new best mates, Remus and Sirius." As I said their names, each of them gave a little wave. "Boys, this is Coco. She's my favorite house elf." They chuckled.

"Pleased to meet you, Coco!" James said delightedly.

"Yeah, it's really a pleasure!" Remus added.

"You must call us by our first names too! I hate being called Mister or Master. It sounds so _formal._" Sirius added, shuddering.

"Okay, Miss Alex, Master Sirius, Master Remus, Master James"

"No, no Misses or Masters please! We're your friends!" I cried.

"Really? Friends? Thank you Alex!" She squeaked, wrapping her arms around me. James, Sirius, and Remus chuckled at her actions. James looked down at his watch.

"We should probably be getting upstairs, so we can get to breakfast on time." He remarked.

"Yeah, we probably should be going. See you, Coco!" I cried after her as we left. When we walked into the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall approached us immediately with our schedules. They were all the same, as I had suspected. I looked it over. We had Transfiguration first, then Charms and Herbology in the morning. We had lunch after that. First class of the afternoon is Potions, then History of Magic.

"Hey, we have a free period this afternoon!" Sirius exclaimed, and we all realized it at the same time.

"I wonder who the History teacher is. I met all the other teachers on my first day." I commented.

"My mum said it's taught by a ghost." Remus told me.

"A really boring one, Dad said." James added.

"Oh, then it would make sense that he wasn't at dinner!" I giggled. We all sat down at the end of the table, and dug in. Once again, I attempted to devour everything within reach, once again my non-blood brothers were laughing at me, and once again, my blood brother joined me. This time, however, Lily and Mary sat across from us.

"James, we're in polite company now. I suggest that you slow down a bit, so Lily and Mary don't get disgusted and leave again." I told him. They giggled, but he slowed down at once.

"I was thinking. We should all try to be friends since we're the only first year Gryffindors. I mean, we don't need to be as close as you four obviously already are, but we should try to get along." Mary announced. "Lily and I already know each other from the muggle school, so we're pretty tight, but I don't really know you guys."

"We would love to get to know you!" James said enthusiastically, and Sirius nodded. Remus put his head in his hands as if to say 'what ever will we do with these two?' and I laughed.

"Sounds like a plan." I said. "Now we should probably be getting to Transfiguration. Would you like us to show you the way?" I offered, pretty kindly if I do say so myself.

"Sure, but how do you know your way around?" Lily asked confusedly. As the six of us set off, the four of us who were Marauders started to explain.

"You see, I was brought here a day early, so as not to give James here a heart attack." I started.

"She had all of yesterday to explore," Sirius continued.

"So she's got a map of the whole thing in her head." Remus said.

"And then Sirius here woke us up at 5:30 this morning" James added, smirking.

"Hey! I wanted to get a tour!" He persisted.

"No worries, I didn't mind being up at 5:30. I usually get up around that time anyway." I put in.

"Anyway, Alex here gave us a tour," Remus continued.

"And now we all know the whole place by heart." We all finished together, triumphantly. The girls stared at us in amazement.

"How on earth did you do that?" Mary asked us in awe.

"Do what?" I asked perplexedly.

"The whole finishing each other's sentences and speaking simultaneously thing?" She asked uncertainly.

"Oh! You know, I have no idea."

"It means we were meant to be!" Sirius cried happily.

"But the point is, you know how to get around here." Lily said purposefully, and all our heads bobbed.

"Aye, that we do!" Remus confirmed.

"So are we there yet?" She asked. I nodded embarrassedly and we turned in to the classroom on our left. We were the first ones there, but the Hufflepuffs followed soon after. I looked around, but Professor McGonagall was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh. I wonder where Professor McGonagall is." I said. Just then, a cat meowed. I looked up, and what must have been Professor McGonagall's pet cat was sitting on her desk. And then the cat did something truly impossible. It _turned into Professor McGonagall! _

"Professor! You're an animagus?" Remus asked interestedly.

"An ani-what now?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yes, I am an animagus Mr. Lupin. And Ms. Potter, an animagus is a person who can turn in to an animal at will. You won't really be studying animagi until your sixth year, but I thought I'd start the class off with a demonstration." I whistled.

"Wow. I want to be one of them!" I cried enthusiastically.

"I am afraid it is very difficult, and you wouldn't be able to achieve it until you were an adult. It took me ten years! Now, if you would like, I can give you a title to read that will tell you more about it." I nodded eagerly, and she wrote down the name of a book. "Now, I believe it is time for us to begin class." And she spent the rest of the class lecturing us.

During our break that afternoon, I dragged Sirius and James off to the library. Remus came too, but he came willingly so I didn't have to drag him.

"Why're we going here?" Sirius whined.

"I want to get that book on animagi." I said to him. "I promise right after we find it we can leave." He groaned, but nodded. We walked in to the library, and I sat the three of them down. "The title of the book is 'The Inner Workings of Animagi: Everything You Need to Know About Animagi and how to Become One.' Now go look for it! When you find it, bring it to me and we'll leave." With that, we were all off, scouring the library. Ten minutes later, James cried out.

"I found it!" He stage whispered from some five feet away from me.

"Really? Thanks so much, James!" I hugged him, and we left.

"Now let's go sit outside and enjoy the sunshine." Sirius commanded.

"Sir, yes sir!" Remus snapped a salute again. We headed out to the grounds, and immediately gravitated to the lake. We settled under a large tree right on the shore.

"I like this tree. Let's claim it as our own." Sirius suggested. When we nodded, he got up.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Claiming it as our own." He said, taking out a pocket knife and beginning to carve. When he was done, it read:

"From this day on, this tree is the sole property of Mr. Sirius Black, Mr. James Potter, Mr. Remus Lupin, and Ms. Alexis Potter."

"You know, I don't think you can do that." A voice said behind us. We turned to face Lily and Mary.

"But we just did!" Sirius said brazenly.

"But don't worry, we'll let you sit here anyway!" James reassured them.

"No thank you." Lily said coldly, and she turned and walked away.

"But Lily!" I called after her.

"What, Potter?" She sneered. I was shocked.

"Why are we on last name terms?" Sirius asked.

"Because, Black, if you four think you're all high and mighty and better than us, you don't deserve to be on first name terms with us." Mary said, just as coldly.

"But we said you could sit with us!" James protested.

"Even more rude and obnoxious, Potter." Lily told him. I don't know what came over me, but I giggled.

"What, Potter?" Lily said turning to me.

"When you call us by our last names, me and James are the same!" I said, laughing hysterically.

"You mean James and I?" Lily asked skeptically.

"Yes, yes, whatever." I waved a hand. She turned to go.

"Bye bye Lily-flower!" James called.

"Lily-flower?" Remus exclaimed, turning to James.

"For once, I agree with one of you, although Lupin _does _seem to be the sensible one. Why on earth did you call me Lily-flower, Potter?"

"Which one of us?" I asked, giggling.

"The male one." She said, not amused.

"I think it's a nice nickname?" James suggested nervously.

"No. From now on, you will call me Evans, and you'll call Mary MacDonald. We will not use first names. Even you, female Potter. No, I don't care that we share a dorm." She said over my protests. I huffed.

"Well that's nice." I grumbled.

"Ignore her. She's just being a stuck up brat." Remus said reasonably. When James protested, he turned to him. "You know it's true! Just because you're going to marry her someday doesn't make her perfect right now." He said calmly.

"Oh, alright." James grumbled. But then, seeing the look on my face, he brightened. He took it as his responsibility to keep me happy at all times. "Don't look so down, Alex! Remmie's right. She's just being a brat. You must not want to hang around her right now! And don't worry. You'll always have us."

"Yeah, and we're much better than her and her friend MacDonald, anyway." Sirius said determinedly. Just then the bell rang throughout the grounds.

"Oh! Time to go in for dinner!" All four of us cried together. We walked into the Great Hall and sat down, trying to ignore the fact that Mary and Lily sat at the complete other end.

"I can't believe we ruined our chances at being a united house so quickly!" I groaned. Seeing their looks, I defended myself. "What? You know it's true! Now there's no way we'll be united in anything, and James doesn't have any chance at going out with her!" Now it was my turn to comfort James. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try! Maybe if you ask her enough she'll be so irritated that she'll say yes, just to pacify you!" I teased. Then, seeing his worried look, I added "But don't worry. You'll give her the time of her life, and she'll see what a great guy you are." He sighed.

"Go for it right now, mate!" Sirius suggested. Then he got a gleam in his eye, and stood up on the table.

"ATTENTION!" he roared. "MY BEST MATE JAMES POTTER HAS SOMETHING TO SAY!" James didn't hesitate for a second before getting up on the table as well, and saying,

"Evans, go out with me?" Remus and I cracked up at the irony of asking someone out using their last name.

"What?" James asked us defensively. "That's how she wanted us to call her!" Then, to my immense embarrassment and amusement, James pulled Remus and me up on the table as well. "MY SISTER DEAR AND OUR FRIEND REMUS DOUBTED US! EVANS, DID YOU NOT ASK US TO CALL YOU BY YOUR LAST NAME?" She turned red, and got up. She marched over to us and smacked him across the face.

"You have some nerve, asking me out after what happened during break, Potter." I couldn't help it.

"Which Potter?" I asked slyly. Remus, Sirius, and James all cracked up.

"As much as I appreciate this little show, Ms. Potter, Ms. Evans, Mr. Potter, I believe it is time to get back to eating. And Ms. Evans, I do recommend that you give James here a second chance. He really does like you." Dumbledore said. James blushed scarlet.

"But Professor, did you see what they did?" She protested.

"I am completely aware that Ms. Potter, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black, and Mr. Potter have claimed the tree outside as their own, and to me it seems only reasonable. After all, they felt it necessary to mark their territory. As no one else here has protested to that, it seems completely acceptable to me." Lily nodded slowly.

"All right then. I suppose I'll give you a second chance." She muttered.

"YAY!" We all shouted happily. "LILY LIKES US AGAIN! LILY LIKES US AGAIN!" we danced in circles on the table, and she groaned.

"Ms. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Potter! We are very pleased that you six are friends again, but could you please get down from the table, and perhaps celebrate by actually eating dinner?" Professor McGonagall asked, exasperated.

"Why is my name always first?" I whined, and the whole hall laughed. I looked around, surprised.

"Oh, hi there! I had forgotten you all were here." And everyone laughed harder.

"Ms. Potter. Please. Join your friends and brother _sitting down._" And I noticed that the other three were sitting again, and I was the only one still standing.

"Sorry Professor, full apologies." I said sitting down. After that, Mary and Lily came to sit with us again. We all talked and laughed for the rest of dinner, and then went up to the common room.

"We should probably get to sleep soon. We have classes tomorrow too. We want to be fully awake for that, don't we?" Remus suggested.

"Yeah, good idea. Hey, did you see the notice for flying lessons on the 21st of October?" James said.

"You guys know how to fly?" Mary squealed. They nodded.

"When you grow up in the Wizarding world, that's all you do in your childhood!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Ugh, I'm so jealous now!" I moaned. James looked at me sympathetically.

"Well, like I said before. You have Potter blood. You'll be brilliant!" He told me.

"A natural!" Remus added.

"You guys really think so?" I asked them.

"We know so. You're awesome, Alex." Sirius told me, and I saw some genuine brotherly affection in his eyes.

"And don't blame yourself for not knowing, anyway." James told me.

"How did you know I" I started.

"You and I are one and the same, Alex. Even though I met you yesterday, I know you like the back of my hand. Now don't go blaming yourself. It's entirely Mum and Dad's fault for setting this whole thing up." He finished, his tone getting angrier as he went. "In fact, I'm going to write to them now to tell them how upset this whole ordeal has made you." He stalked off up the stairs.

"We should probably go too." Remus said awkwardly, and he and Sirius left.

"Well, that was interesting!" Lily said faux brightly.

"Come on Lils, Alex. Let's go upstairs." Mary grabbed Lily's arm and we all went up to our dorm.

"Good night Mary, goodnight Alex!" Lily called.

"Night Lils, night Alex!" Mary called back.

"Goodnight Mary, goodnight Lily." I finished. Then, instead of going to bed, I settled down to read the book I found on animagi.

_Becoming an animagus is a very complicated process. It involves years of meditation and concentration. It takes lots of determination, and a certain amount of maturity to successfully become an animagus. The fastest known time of completion of the process was in 1860 by Albus Dumbledore, who completed the transformation in only six years. There are several steps to this procedure. The first one is finding your Inner Animal, or what form you would take were you to be able to transform. To do this you must meditate. It may take up to seven years to successfully find your Animal, and it usually takes one about five. The meditation required involves total solitude. You must become completely immersed in your own breathing, and then you will be able to delve deeply into your brain. However, you will find that your brain is full of many millions of thoughts, only one of them being your animagus form. It will take those five years to search for and extract this little bit of knowledge. There are more detailed instructions on how this meditation works inside this book. After you have found your animal, you must make a potion, the ingredients of which can be found on page 263. To be able to transform, you must take the potion. The potion takes around 10 months to brew, and then another two before it is ready to take. After you have taken the potion, you just concentrate on your animal, and you will slowly start to be able to transform. This part of the procedure generally takes about two years. You will slowly start to gain more body parts of your animal whenever you attempt to transform, starting with just a little bit of fur and ending with a whole animal. There are several benefits to undergoing this long and tedious project, one being that, as an animal, you cannot be harmed seriously by a werewolf, acromantula, dragon, or any other magical creatures. Good luck and happy Inner Animal hunting!_

"Wow." I breathed softly. You must have to be really sure you want to do this before doing it, and I really admired Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall's determination and strong will. I got up slowly and stuck the book under my bed for safe keeping. I checked my watch and gasped. It was almost midnight! I had been reading and thinking for a long time. Sighing, I got back in bed and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Would you look at that? Another chapter today! I'm on a roll! Short A/N this time, and if you want a disclaimer then look at the chapter before. I'm feeling lazy right now. Oh, I invented a spell here, and the Latin might me totally off. Just ignore it. I'm sorry. I don't want to go figure out what would be right. I like it just the way it is. Hmph. :)**

**Oh, I think I got a review saying it was moving too fast. Well, I'm sorry, but I was bored of the beginningy stuff. So I zoomed through it, because it isn't really too important. I have most of this pre-written, but when I get to writing new stuff again, I promise it will move slower. I'm just too lazy to go back and rewrite it all. Plus, I like it the way it is, and now I can get right into the good stuff.**

* * *

The next morning, I felt someone softly shaking my shoulder.

"Alex, Alex? Wake up. It's time for breakfast." Lily said softly. I opened my eyes.

"Thanks, Lily. That sure was a lot gentler than Sirius' wakeup call yesterday!" I grinned.

"What did he do?" She asked amusedly.

"The idiot tried to come up and get me himself, and the stairs wound up turning into a slide while wailing loudly. It was so early that no one else heard or woke, but I did." I laughed, and so did she.

"Get dressed, and Mary and I will meet you downstairs, okay?" I shook my head and tapped my pajamas with my wand, grinning as they turned into my uniform. "Wow. You've really got to teach me that." She said, amazed.

"ALEX! LILY-FLOWER! GOOD MORNING!" I felt something large and dog-like smash into me, and next think I knew I was on the floor with Sirius on top of me.

"Morning, Alex dear!" He said, smiling cheekily down at me. I sat up and shoved him off.

"James, your best mate just jumped on me!" I complained, knowing full well that all three of them were down there.

"I did not, I jumped on Lily! Only a lot less noisily." Remus said indignantly.

"I meant the other one." I groaned.

"He's your best mate too!" James protested, before coming and helping me up. I then walked over to Lily and gently lifted her off the floor.

"James got Mary when she came down." Sirius told me smugly.

"Did you guys plan this or something?" Mary's voice came from the portrait hole. "Answer that on your way to breakfast. Come on, let's go!" And she dragged us all out into the hall. As we walked, we slowly drifted apart into two separate groups. Lily wandered ahead to chat with Mary, and the four of us lagged behind.

"It looks like we'll always be two groups within one. Not that I mind, girls can be right annoying sometimes." I commented.

"You do realize you include yourself in that, right Alex?" Remus pointed out.

"Sorry, I meant girly girls. I, however, am a tomboy and proud of it!" I grinned.

"Marauders unite!" James whispered, holding his hand out. I put mine on top of his, and then Sirius put his on mine. Remus added his to the pile, and we repeated, "Marauders unite!" We thought the girls were far enough ahead that they wouldn't hear if we spoke a little louder, but apparently they weren't.

"What're the Marauders?" Lily asked suspiciously. I sighed. I knew that she would not take any lie we gave her, and I told the boys so.

"We decided that we needed a nickname" Remus started

"because when we do pranks that would be known school wide" James continued

"we wouldn't get in trouble for them" Sirius added

"If they didn't know it was us." I finished dully. We all waited with bated breath for her to start telling us off, and make us quit. To tell the truth, we were all quite scared of her.

"That was brilliant, how do you guys do that?" A small voice squeaked from behind us.

"Peter Pettigrew, first year Hufflepuff at your service!" He said cheerfully. "Now I'm off. I can't wait to tell my friends how brilliant you guys are!" He dashed off.

"Oh great." I muttered. "Now the whole school will know our nickname."

"It seems to me that this will be enough punishment for the four of you, so I won't yell at you this time." Lily announced, and we all breathed sighs of relief. She and Mary raced ahead of us again.

"Well, just because they know who we are doesn't mean we can't pull the pranks!" Sirius said deviously.

"Yeah, I've always wanted a hundred detentions." Remus said drily.

"Really? You too?" Sirius asked, picking up on the sarcasm but pretending not to. When he saw our incredulous looks, he said "What? My pureblood maniac parents told me to never get detentions, so of course I want to get as many as I can! They can't be that bad." I nodded. This made sense.

"I like it. Let's plan as many awesome pranks as we can and not care if we get caught!" I exclaimed.

"Sounds like a plan. Hey, I've got one for right now, at breakfast!" James said. "You know that spell Remus uses to transfigure our clothes?"

"What about it?" Remus asked doubtfully.

"Well, why don't we sort of mass-produce it on all the Slytherins? We can put them all in pink tutus!"

"That's a great idea, but how do we do it without going up and tapping every one of their robes?" Sirius asked.

"Wait. I was reading the text books" James and Sirius spluttered. "Come off it. You know I was just doing it for spells like these! So anyway, I was reading the text book, and I found a spell to sort of enlarge any other spell. It's called the amplification spell. So you say '_engorgio et mi versus' _I think it was, and then say the spell you want to amplify along with the person or thing it's directed to. So we would say '_engorgio et me versus, modifico Slytherins.' _The spell is _modifico,_ right Remus?" I asked, and he nodded.

"It'll probably be stronger if we all say it together." He added, somewhat reluctantly.

"Sounds great! Shall we do it at breakfast then?" Sirius asked enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I guess. Come on, let's go! Breakfast is starting." I said.

We decided that we shouldn't do it right when we get there, because that would be too suspicious. We wanted to enjoy what would be The Marauders' first and probably only prank in anonymity. After completing the spell, James was going to shoot off a banner above the Slytherin table that said "Love, the Marauders!" We knew that soon after, word would spread who the Marauders were, but we didn't care. So here we sat, waiting for a good time. When we had all long ago finished eating, Sirius finally signaled to start the spell. "_Engorgio et me versus, modifico Slytherins_." I muttered under my breath, and saw the other three do the same. All of a sudden, all the Slytherins were in pink frilly tutus. The whole hall erupted with laughter at them, but it took them a second to figure out why. When they looked down and realized what they were wearing, they all let out an ugly roar simultaneously. Then, to cap it off, James' banner appeared above their heads.

"Who're the Marauders?" Some Ravenclaw yelled.

"I dunno, but whoever they are, they're bloody brilliant!" Sirius roared back, causing us to sink into laughter again. The laughter slowly died down, and everyone continued eating. Except the Slytherins, that is. They all stormed out to change. All of a sudden, a dark shadow appeared over my shoulder.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter. That was very funny, but if you, or should I say 'the Marauders', ever do something more lasting, you will face punishment." Professor McGonagall told us.

"What? How did you know?" Sirius spluttered.

"Ms. Evans." Professor McGonagall said simply, and walked away.

"_Evans…_" Sirius growled dangerously.

"Don't kill her, then I won't be able to marry her!" James shouted.

"EXCUSE ME?" Lily shrieked.

"You're excused!" Remus said cheekily. She hissed.

"POTTER! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" She thundered.

"Go out with me Evans?" He asked quickly. God, he can be such a dimwit sometimes! Even he should know that now is the wrong time. I guess he's just being a love struck idiot.

"I AM NO LONGER SPEAKING TO YOU! ANY OF YOU! Oh, except you Alex. I doubt you had anything to do with Potter trying to be funny and asking me out." She stormed out, Mary trailing behind her.

"What's gotten into her?" James asked.

"I dunno, mate. It's probably just her temper. Redheads are known for them." Sirius answered, and Remus nodded sympathetically.

"You know, sometimes I wonder just how stupid boys can be." I told them.

"What do you mean?" James asked, bewildered.

"She's eleven. And she clearly doesn't want to go out with you _right now._ Emphasis on right now. Right after Sirius stupidly declared that he was going to kill her, you went and told him not to so you could marry her! Imagine how she feels now. I know I would feel like a thing, meant to be tossed around and sold from owner to owner. That's not how you should be discussing her, like you own her or something. And then, to top it all off, you went and asked her out immediately afterwards. It's a wonder she left you alive!" I told them.

"Wow. When you put it that way…" Remus said.

"Yeah. Will you tell her we're sorry?" James asked.

"I can try, but I doubt she'll listen." I sighed.

"Hey, now everyone knows who the Marauders are!" Sirius cried happily.

"Is that really all you got out of this little experience, Sirius?" I asked him exasperatedly.

"Yep!" he grinned.

"You are so thick."

"Thank you!"

"Sirius, that wasn't a compliment."  
"Well I'm taking it as one."

"You're an idiot."  
"Thank you!"

"Still not a compliment!"

"Come on, Remus, Brother, Idiot—"

"Hey!"

"We need to get to class."

Sometime later, we finally made it to class, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Hey, Dad used to teach this class!" I remembered suddenly.

"Yeah, and that's what got us into this whole mess, remember?" James pointed out.

"Oh, right. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it, does it?" I asked worriedly. James laughed.

"No, of course it doesn't mean that, you silly goose." He said, pulling my hair teasingly.

"Excuse me, Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter, but may I please begin my class?" A man's voice asked from behind us. I looked around, and it was Professor Merrythought.

"Yes you may!" James and I responded cheekily at the same time.

"Thank you." He said sarcastically. "Now, today I will demonstrate a little bit of what you will learn in future years, and then you will be taking notes." He pulled out his wand and said '_expecto patronum_!' and a giant bird burst out of his wand. "This, students, is a Patronus. You will learn about it in the last few years here at Hogwarts. It protects you from dementors." He waved his wand, and it vanished. "May I have a volunteer?" he asked. I raised my hands, and James raised his eyebrows. I shook my head, telling him not to worry. "Ah, Ms. Potter. Come up here please." I did, and he whispered in my ear "Do I have permission to stun you? I will revive you immediately afterwards." I nodded, and he pulled out his wand again. '_Stupefy!'_ Everything went black for a second, but then I woke up to Sirius and Remus screaming at Merrythought, and a couple Ravenclaw boys holding James back.

"Relax, James. I told him he could do that!" I shouted. James, Sirius, and Remus all stared at me.

"You did?" I nodded. "Oh." I went over to the Professor and whispered in his ear

"I know how to do '_Protego_'. Do you want to stun me again, and I'll block it? I think that will convince my brother that I let you do it the first time." He nodded, and I turned to James. "Boys, watch this. And don't move until it's over." I said sternly. "Go ahead, Professor."

'_Stupefy!'_

'_Protego!'_

The spell was sucked in by my shield.

"And that, boys, is proof that I let him do it the first time. If I had not been expecting it and welcoming it, I would have put up that shield."

"And to the rest of a class, that was '_protego_,' a shield charm taught in fourth year. However, Ms. Potter here taught herself to do it early, and I suggest the rest of you do the same. It is extremely useful." And we spent the rest of the class taking notes, and on my part, being stared at.

"How the hell did you do that?" James hissed as we made our way to our next class, Potions.

"Do what?" I asked in a normal voice. They stared at me.

"You know, the potato-thingie?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.

"Oh, protego. Well, the spell itself is really simple. You just hold your wand in front of you and say '_protego!_' and the shield pops up!" I explained.

"But how did you know to do it?" Remus asked dejectedly. He was disappointed that I knew how to do something he didn't.

"After I read our year text books, I went to the library and got the next few years' worth. I just skimmed through them!" I added defensively upon seeing their shocked faces.

"Wow. You're really smart." James said faintly, and I blushed.

"Not really, I just love to read. I'll read anything I can get my hands on, and fast." I said very fast.

"Ah. You're a reader. Well, we'll just have to do something about that." Sirius said mock thoughtfully.

"You'll do no such thing!" I cried.

"Yeah! How else are we going to learn all that advanced magic?" James put in.

"I'd be willing to teach you guys the stuff I know…" I said elusively. Remus' face brightened considerably at the thought of all that advanced magic. We arrived at Potions, and had to split off into pairs. I went with James today; yesterday I had been with Remus and he had been with Sirius.

"So, brother dear. Bonding time!" I said, smiling at him genuinely.

"But seriously, I know nothing about you! I told you about me, now I need to know about you." He said sincerely, hugging me again.

"Well, I don't really know either. I feel like my whole life I've been living a lie. Most of the things I liked to do were petty things that Muggles do to amuse themselves. The only things I can still relate to are reading and wandering around in nature. "

"Well, if you liked those things, that's good enough for me! Tell me all about these petty muggle things you speak of." Just then, Professor Slughorn walked in. He flicked his wand at the board and instructions to brew a potion appeared on it.

"You have an hour to create the potion on the board. You may begin now." I rushed over to the store closet, dragging James behind me. Together we gathered all the ingredients and tools we needed, and started brewing. Potions seemed to be another of my strong subjects, I thought as I followed the instructions with ease.

"Talk, Alex. I can tell you could probably do this with your eyes closed. How you do it, I'll never know. But who cares about how you do it, just tell me about your muggle stuff." He looked up eagerly.

"Well, it's sort of like cooking, one of my other favorite pastimes. I'm sure you know what that is." He nodded, and looked expectantly at me, so I sighed. "Oh, alright. I'll start with the simpler things. There are these things called board games. They are generally played on a square piece of cardboard, that's like really thick parchment. And it has a design on it that differs depending on the game. I'll tell you about my favorite, Scrabble. So there are a bunch of squares, about two centimeters squared each. They cover the whole board. Some of them are different colors, and that scores you more points if you use them."

"How do you use them?" James asked in awe.

"I'm getting there!" I said, stirring the cauldron three times counter clockwise. "Oh, Professor, we're done!" I called. As Professor Slughorn walked over, I told James I'd continue with Scrabble in a minute.

"Oh, Mr. and Ms. Potter, it's simply excellent! Just perfect! And you finished just after my other two potions geniuses, Ms. Evans and Mr. Snape. Just wonderful! Full marks!" He waddled away happily, and I vanished the potion.

"How did you do that?" James asked incredulously.

"Third year transfiguration." I said simply.

"Oh, of course. Now, back to Scrabble!" He said excitedly. I sighed.

"So there are tiles, with letters on them. To score points, the players take turns forming words. And each letter is worth a different amount of points, so that makes it interesting. I liked to play with a little twist though, where you could use made up words if you could give a definition and seem confident about it." He grinned.  
"I like that game!"

"Now I know what to get you for Christmas!" I said happily. He cheered.

"Okay, one other thing you need to know about. You know what electricity is, right?" He nodded. "So, there's this thing called a computer. It's kind of like an electric brain. And there's something that goes with it, called Internet. Internet helps you connect to other people who have computers. There are things called websites on the Internet, and they're, um, they're kind of like bulletin boards, but on the computer. At least the ones I use are. People can post things on them, and others see them. And it's kind of like a universal common room, because you can chat with people too."

"I love it!" He cried.

"I'm glad. Maybe when we go home for break… Wait we do go home for break, right?" He nodded. "So when we go home for break I can ask Mum and Dad if we could get a computer. I bet they won't refuse, it'll be like they're making up for eleven years' worth of birthdays." He grinned at that.

"So now we're done with what you liked to do, tell me about yourself. And don't be modest." He added, mock sternly. I giggled.

"Is lack of modesty supposed to be a Potter family trait?" I joked. "Because you and Dad both have it, if so. Well, let me see. I'm pretty smart, if I do say so myself. And I love to sing. I have a really good voice, too. Er, I'm generally pretty modest, and I usually see the best in people."

"Well you'll have to stop being modest then, you're right. You're a Potter now!"

"That's so hard to get used to hearing, you have no idea. So anyway, I'm pretty mischievous, and my favorite catchphrase is 'rules were made to be broken.'"

"Yeah, same here! It sounds like we're pretty similar, except for the whole loves learning thing. And reading. But otherwise, you and I are pretty identical!" I smiled widely. This was just what I had always wanted! A twin who was just like me, who could empathize with me, and who would be my best friend. And that's just what James gave me!

"I love you, James." I murmured.

"Again, would have been awkward in another situation!" Sirius singsonged from behind us.

"What, I'm not allowed to tell my brother, my twin I might add, that I love him? Where has the world gone to?" I yelled dramatically.

"Now who's being dramatic?" Remus chuckled from behind us.

"Oh yeah, lovebirds?" Sirius said.

"Hey! We're twins, not dating!" James exclaimed.

"Whatever! The bell just rang; we should probably head to History of Magic."

"That joke of a subject? He wouldn't notice if we ditched!" Remus scoffed.

"We should go anyway; it'll be a good time to catch up. On sleep _and_ talking." I said. And so we went to History. This is what we did throughout all of History of Magic:

Hey boys! I'm bored…

**Alex? Passing notes in class?**

James, you know this is the worst subject ever.

_Yeah James, look around. You, Sirius, Alex and I are the only ones even awake!_

_**Ha ha, we'll pass and everyone else will fail!**_

_Are you actually paying attention though Sirius?_

_**Yes! I am! I'm passing notes with one half of my brain, and absorbing knowledge with the other.**_

You sticking by that?

_**Why yes, I am.**_

Good for you, Sirius.

_**That was not an invitation to be sarcastic Alex.**_

Who said I needed an invitation?

_**Good point.**_

**Yes, yes, we all know Alex is sarcastic, but can we please talk about something else now?**

_Such as…?_

**How Alex got to be so bloody brilliant?**

I told you already. I read all the textbooks.

_**Why on earth would you want to do that?**_

Because I was interested? Because I like reading? Need any other reasons?

_**Nope! That's enough. **_

**But how on earth does a Potter enjoy reading?**

I didn't grow up a Potter, remember?

**Of course I do.**

_Hey, Alex. Do you think you could teach us some of the spells you know?_

I'd be glad to! How about we skip lunch and go to an empty classroom and I teach you guys some spells?

**I'm in!**

_**I want to do it! I want to do it!**_

_Wow, that sounded really wrong._

I never thought of Remus as the perverted one…

**Always thought it would be Sirius!**

_You mean always for the past 2 and a half days?_

_**Hey, I take offence at that!**_

**Let's switch the subject.**

_Ok, do you think we should wake the others up?_

**No, why?**

_They're going to be asking us for our notes when they see we were awake._

_**So we pretend to be asleep!**_

**Brilliant, Sirius! When you see people waking up, lay your head down.**

And if they ask anyway?

_**Well we didn't take any notes, did we? It's all up in our brains.**_

**Because we're really smart!**

_I told you I was smart!_

And I believed you! Yeesh, Remus.

**Hey, there's the bell. Sleep, quick!**

One at a time, we got up and made a show of fake-yawning.

"My, that was a good nap!" Sirius yelled.

"Sirius, how obvious can you get?!" I hissed. He smiled guiltily. I indicated to them that they should hang back for a minute. After everyone else had left and Binns had floated through the blackboard, Remus asked

"Why did we hang back?"

"I thought we should come up with a plan. Someone should go to the kitchens and grab us some food, but not all of us need to go. The others should go find an empty classroom. On this floor, preferably. So who wants to go on the food mission?" James and Sirius both raised their hands. "Great. Remus and I will go look for an empty classroom. When you get back, yell for us. We'll come find you. It shouldn't matter how much noise we make, because we're so far away from the Great Hall." With that, Remus and I set off down the hall, James and Sirius down the staircase. We had gone about three quarters of the way down the hall when I poked my head into a classroom that had all the desks pushed up against the wall.

"This one's perfect." I told Remus.

"Alright, do you need to set anything up?" he asked me.

"No, I don't think so." I replied. "I'm not quite sure what to teach you though."

"Everything you know!" Sirius called from the door.

"Which I'm sure is a ton, because you're brilliant." James added.

"Well you guys are brilliant too, so I'm sure you'll catch on super-fast." I told them.

"Yes, yes, now let's get started." Remus said impatiently.

"Sure. What do you want to learn first?" I asked.

"How about that protego thing?" James suggested.

"Alright, that one's simple enough. Everyone got their wands out?" they nodded. "Okay. Just hold your wand out in front of you and think really hard about protection. Then say '_protego._'" They all followed my directions and successfully produced shields on their first attempts. "Great! Now, I'm going to shoot a few spells at you. When they come towards your shield, think about strengthening it, really concentrate on it." They nodded, and I walked around them in circles. Out of the blue, I shot a stunner at Sirius. Just like I asked, he strengthened his shield making the pulsing blue light stronger. "Good, Sirius!" I said. Then I sent a stinging hex at Remus, and a Bat Bogey hex at James, and they did the same.

"Hey, Alex, will you teach us that first one? The stunner? I already know the others…" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, so do I. And I'm sure Remus does." James said, making Remus swell with pride.

"Yeah, alright. This one doesn't involve any specific thoughts, just point your wand at the person you want to stun and say '_stupefy._' We can probably practice it on each other. Oh yeah, the countercurse is '_rennervate._'" They agreed, and I conjured some cushions for us to fall onto. They all jumped enthusiastically to the task, and by the time we got tired of it, we had all been knocked out at least twice. I figured now was as good a time as any to stop.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! May I present to you the brilliant Messrs. Remus, Sirius, and James of Marauderville! Oh, and me." I announced, adding myself as an afterthought.

"Marauderville?" Remus inquired.

"Where the Marauders live, of course!" I told him.

"Hey, let's rename our dorm room Marauderville. Then when we want to have a secret meeting, we can just say 'calling all Marauders to Marauderville!'" Sirius suggested excitedly.

"Why your dorm, not mine?" I whined.

"Because, Alex dear, all the inhabitants of Marauderville must be Marauders. And I am fairly certain that however pretty Miss Lily and Miss Mary are, they aren't Marauders. I doubt they would want us to hold secret meetings in there.

"Good point."

"Now let's eat!" And we dug in to the food Sirius and James had brought us.


End file.
